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Third-quarter profit and sales expectations among business leaders declined sharply in the past month, according to the Dun & Bradstreet National Business Expectations survey.

In its survey of 1,200 business owners and executives on their outlook for the three months to Sept 30, Dun & Bradstreet's profit index fell 15 points to a reading of -7 while sales expectations fell 9 points to 5, their lowest level in two years.

Also falling were employment expectations and capital expectations, which both dipped into negative territory.

While the Budget has been received as relatively restrained, some new measures were outlined which may impact how you manage your finances today as well as plan for your retirement. 

The good news for families was that 'means testing' of the Child Care Rebate was not a feature of this year's budget.

National Australia Bank's monthly business survey showed conditions for firms fell slightly in April, though the index remained just off its highest level in a year, reached last month.

NAB's index of business conditions fell two points to an index reading of +7 points.

The bank's index of business confidence fell four points to +5 points. NAB's index for business profitability fell six points to an index reading of +4 points in April.  

The total number of job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet rose 1.0% in seasonally adjusted terms in April from March, ANZ Bank said.

Over the year, total jobs ads were 20.5% higher. The number of Internet job advertisements rose 1.2% in the same period, contributing to an annual increase of 22.2% in seasonally adjusted terms.

Job advertisements in newspapers fell 3.4% over the month, and grew 6.1% over the year in seasonally adjusted terms.  

The Reserve Bank of Australia said it will have to tighten monetary policy further at some point as it ramped up its core inflation forecasts for coming years predicting that rising energy, food and living costs and an airtight labour market will combine to stoke price pressures.

In its May statement on monetary policy, the Reserve Bank of Australia forecast core inflation to be right at the top of its 2%-3% target band from the end of 2011 through 2012 and 2013 before reaching 3.25% at the end of 2013.

Australian retail sales fell 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted $20.46bn in March from $20.55bn in February and rose from $20.00bn a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

Economists surveyed ahead of the announcement on average had expected a 0.5% rise in sales for March. Sales had risen 0.8% in February on month.

The bureau said the the trend estimate for retail sales rose 0.1% to $20.44bn in March from February. The trend estimate further smoothes the seasonally adjusted numbers.

The Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates on hold, but it also signalled that a policy tightening isn't too far off as inflation looks set to rise further.

The RBA left its cash rate at 4.75%, where it has remained since November 2010.

RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said a mildly restrictive stance of monetary policy "remains appropriate" for now, but he also warned that inflation will rise, even in the face of an Australian dollar at 29-year highs.  

A leading private sector estimate of consumer inflation continued to rise in April, keeping the central bank on track to raise interest rates later this year.

The TD Securities-Melbourne Institute monthly gauge of inflation rose 0.3% in April, following a 0.6% rise in March and 0.2% rise in Feb. Over the year to April, the inflation gauge rose 3.6%, following a 3.8% rate for the year to March.

Global markets (in particular in the US) rebounded strongly in April.  However, the Australian share market was flat with concerns of a high Australian dollar and uncertainty surrounding implementation of the proposed carbon tax.

The All Ordinaries Index retreated 0.6% in April to close at 4,899 points.  Global markets were all higher with the Dow Jones Index gaining 4.0%, the FTSE gaining 2.7%, the Hang Seng gaining 0.8% and the Nikkei 225 gaining 1.0%.

Residential land sales dropped to their lowest level in at least a decade as the cost of blocks increased, a newspaper reported.

The Housing Industry Association RP Data residential land report showed that the volume of land sales dropped to about 11,500 lots in the three months to Dec 2010 from 12,500 in the previous quarter.

The slumping volumes of lot sales come as the weighted price of a residential lot increased 4.1% to $194,161 nationwide.